Reflections: Disability group

Reflections: Comparison of Disabled Children in Jaunsaur and Canada

Disability is one of those unique happenings that transcends borders. Whether you go to the richest communities in the Western World to the poorest communities in Africa, disabled children are found all over. In accordance with appreciative inquiry, one of the two groups in the Student International Health Initiative (SIHI) focused their attention on disability. The definition of disability was kept quite broad to include anything that really stood out about an individual which was different from the rest of the village population – physically or mentally. Coming into this study, most members of the group, if not all, had painted quite a different picture of disabled children than what was really shown to be in the villages. The typical stereotypes that were the norm all surrounded the idea that disabled children in India probably do not get treated very well by society, by their families and many thought that poorer families would see disabled children as a burden. However, visiting the different villages in the Jaunsaur region proved that many of our initial perceptions and stereotypes were wrong. By examining a few disabled children in Jaunsaur, showed us that the way disabled children are treated here is not an accurate reflection of what people think of disabled children – in fact these are two very different things.

The treatment of disabled children in the villages of Jaunsaur is quite favorable and certainly beyond the expectations that many group members had. About five days into the core module, the group was able to interview the teacher and mother of a boy named Sanjay Singh. Sanjay was an 11 year old boy who had been deaf and mute since birth. He was studying in grade five and was quite capable of doing any basic things that a non-disabled child his age could do. He demonstrated to us that he could write down the names of children in his village and the days of the week as well. Right away it was very apparent that the child had built a very strong bond with his teacher (who was also his cousin). The teacher had given him extra time and attention that was needed for him to learn how to read and write. We also got to see Sanjay play a game of ‘Kho-kho’ (a popular children’s game in India, similar to tag) and it was very rewarding to see that Sanjay’s disability did not keep him from interacting with the other children. On the contrary, none of the children discriminated against him in any way and treated him like any other student. In comparison to Canada (from my experience), children with disability do at times face hardships when interacting with other students. At younger ages, children tend to be meaner and it is quite possible that a disabled child like Sanjay might not be so well received in Canada by other students of his age group. Although, there is no evidence to confirm this, it is possible that due to his disability, children in Canada might view his disability as a serious limitation for certain games. However, from what we saw from Sanjay’s friends, teacher, and mother, his charismatic smile and loving personality made him no different than any other child in the village.

As mentioned previously, the treatment of disabled children in India was certainly a surprise for most SIHI members, however the perceptions of disabled children in some ways did match the stereotypes we had. When speaking with Sanjay’s mother, we were saddened to learn that despite Sanjay’s ambition and desire to keep studying, his fate was destined to be a tailor master! His mother had decided that unlike his older brother (who was in Dehradun studying in grade eight), Sanjay would stop his studies after completing grade five. There were many reasons given for this. One being that since Sanjay’s teacher was his first cousin, his mother did not think that another teacher would be as patient or as caring with her child. Another reason was that due to his disability, he would have to go to a special school for the disabled which is in Dehradun and this would require a parent to attend school with him. However his mother let us know that this was not affordable for the family to do. This had really saddened the group because from what we saw, Sanjay was quite an intelligent boy who had a lot of potential.

Upon visiting other villages, we learned that many of the schools in Jaunsaur (mostly government schools) said they did not have disabled children; however these were very open to accepting them if parents would register them. Quashi, a village which had a large government school (500 students) reported that it had no children with disabilities. However upon further interviewing a few boys, we found out about two children with disabilities – one student who was partially deaf and one who had a club foot. When speaking with these boys, we asked what their initial impression of children with disabilities was and they all seemed to agree that children with disabilities were treated no differently in school.

However, we also quickly learned that when asked what disabled children would do after finishing schools, the boys seemed to agree that they could not do anything but continue to work the fields. It became quite clear to the SIHI group, that the general population had undermined the potential and capacity of these disabled children. Although society does not treat these disabled children harshly, they still do think that their role in society has been marginalized due to their disability. In Canada, this is quite different. Because there is so much focus and studies done on children with disabilities, more and more Canadian teachers are being trained on how to work with disabled children in order to make sure that their education and role in society is not diminished due to their disability. The perception of people with disability in the Jaunsaur area is quite sad. Many people, including parents of disabled children and teachers, do not see the potential that these people carry and thus do not give enough attention and resources to teaching them.

As one can note, the treatment and perceptions of disabled children in the Jaunsaur area are two different things. Speaking with the village head of the Jaunsaur area during an interview session, we learned that disability was a new area of focus for them and that they were starting to make people in the area more aware of how to deal with disabled children. They had planned on training schools in the area on how to work with children with disabilities and also try to deal with other problems that people with disabilities face in Jaunsaur. This assured me that there is something that is trying to be done and although it is not easy, it is a start! Hopefully within the next ten years or so, we will start to see the perceptions and attitudes of society towards disabled children change!

(Nishu, Disability Group)